Akufo-Addo Should Not Stoop To Mahama’s Abysmally Low Level

I don’t quite recall the visceral reaction of the likes of Messrs. Daniel Batidam and Vitus Azeem to the Mahama Ford Expedition Payola Cocktail, his adamant refusal to move out of the Vice-President’s official residence and the Montie Trio’s flagrant violation of the integrity of the Wood Supreme Court, with the noetic complicity of the extant Council-of-State, but I vividly remember the fact that absolutely none of these so-called anti-corruption mavens and czars called for either the parliamentary censure of the former president or his outright resignation. Indeed, we actually had Mr. Batidam fervidly back up the man to whom he was presidential advisor on anti-corruption issues in the righteousness of Mr. Mahama’s inglorious cause.

Nevertheless, it is absolutely significant, and even imperative, for President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo to heed the solemn call of Mr. Vitus Azeem to seriously reconsider the recent promotion of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigations Division (CID), MaameYaaTiwaaa Addo-Danquah, to Acting Director-General of her department (See “Addo Danquah’s Appointment [a] Dent on Akufo-Addo” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 10/19/17).

In his submission against the promotion of Ms. Addo-Danquah, the former local representative of the global civil and human rights organization, Amnesty International (AI), or the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), referenced the so-called A-Plus Scandal, in which the Hiplife musician and New Patriotic Party’s electioneering-campaign propagandist, Mr. Kwame AsareObeng, was widely reported to have leaked an audiotape recording indicating that a corruption allegation investigation that was headed by Commissioner Addo-Danquah, by her own confession, had been deliberately botched to protect the image and reputation of the ruling party.

Now, what this means is that Commissioner Addo-Danquah was firmly convinced that some veritable acts of corruption had occurred at the Flagstaff House under the President’s watch. The more serious problem here, of course, is the glaring and damning implication that, after all, Nana Akufo-Addo may not really be in charge of both the internal affairs of his own government and that of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). For instance, the recent pushing out of the former Head of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Ghana Police Service (GPS), Mr. Bright Oduro, is widely known to have been instigated by the public badmouthing of the latter by Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, a notoriously undisciplined and rambunctious non-cabinet party stalwart and contractor who also serves as Member of Parliament for Assin-Central.

In short, President Akufo-Addo should not be tolerating the diarrheal dumping of the ruling party’s internal affairs into the public domain by such self-serving operatives as the two men mentioned above, among quite a slew of others, who clearly seem to be afflicted with nihilistic or self-destructive tendencies. Don’t get me wrong: I fully appreciate the imperative need of giving a fair shake, as it were, or opportunities for highly placed and hardworking Ghanaian women public servants like Commissioner Addo-Danquah to both prove and distinguish themselves in their respective fields of professional endeavor. But, of course, as I have always maintained, such well-directed Affirmation Action policy measures ought to be purely based on merit.

So far, unfortunately, in the A-Plus case in point, for example, Ms. Addo-Danquah clearly demonstrated that she woefully lacks the sort of professional diligence and objectivity that the highly sensitive position of CID Chief entails. On the aforementioned audiotape, for instance, Ms. Addo-Danquah is clearly heard playing NPP party sympathizer instead of the highly professional clinical seeker of the truth, poised to letting the proverbial chips fall where they may, that she is supposed to be. I mean, stooping abysmally low to the Stygian level of former President John Dramani Mahama is the last place that President Akufo-Addo wants to be, unless, of course, he would rather have Election 2020 become a rematch contest between him and his hopelessly inept predecessor.

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